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ipask's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars. Rachel Zucker’s confessional proems and self described Book of Nothing are at times uncomfortable, though of course she knows this. At times, I felt this was more for her than us. An interesting perspective on motherhood and art.
sam8834's review against another edition
4.0
Rachel Zucker's writing on motherhood is so, so good, and I will forever treasure her for making space for motherhood poetics.
madi's review against another edition
3.0
I like the way Zucker plays with form here but the novelty wore off for me after the first 100 pages. The rest felt like the ramblings of an upper class white woman. I did enjoy the nuanced perspective of motherhood, but as a whole was mostly annoyed by the end of this. That being said, it was intriguing and I will try another work by Zucker.
mirandacactusreads's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked so much of this book and what it does!! the poems/not-poems/lyric essays explore grief and death, motherhood and the hurts of raising children, fulfilling a role in this way, being a teacher, the poetry of poems, privilege, the interrogation of the confessional, the politics of naming or identifying people in your poems, and so much more. It’s at times alienating because it is so specific to Rachel Zucker but I still enjoyed the experience of reading and thinking through her eyes. This book is so so clever.
It’s interesting to think about if we are supposed to take these poems at face value for Truth and Reality, which is also talked about in here too in such a subtly meta manner. Does the crafting of a poem make it false in some way because of the manipulation of words and perspectives?
Some are so gut-punchy and I can genuinely feel the tension and emotion in these poems. Also it specifically made me think about motherhood in different ways and the relationship between parent and child and the Meaning of these relationships.
It also triggered a lot of thoughts about my own writing and why sometimes I feel a struggle in writing poems lately, like I don’t want to be known or seen in them but to not include my Self in them feels boring or like I’m hiding something! Idk but any book that gets me thinking about craft gets my endorsement lol.
It’s interesting to think about if we are supposed to take these poems at face value for Truth and Reality, which is also talked about in here too in such a subtly meta manner. Does the crafting of a poem make it false in some way because of the manipulation of words and perspectives?
Some are so gut-punchy and I can genuinely feel the tension and emotion in these poems. Also it specifically made me think about motherhood in different ways and the relationship between parent and child and the Meaning of these relationships.
It also triggered a lot of thoughts about my own writing and why sometimes I feel a struggle in writing poems lately, like I don’t want to be known or seen in them but to not include my Self in them feels boring or like I’m hiding something! Idk but any book that gets me thinking about craft gets my endorsement lol.
malkarivka's review
4.0
The first and last poems were standouts to me, and I loved their connections to the poems in between. What an excellent book that stretched my conception of what poetry can be and what poetry looks like. I loved this.
I read this book for the Jewish Women's Archives book club.
I read this book for the Jewish Women's Archives book club.
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